


(un)ending

by kiyokusa



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Paranormal AU, it be like that, tw dead bodies, tw drugs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 06:55:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29291724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiyokusa/pseuds/kiyokusa
Summary: you’re looking to get a little high for this Halloween, not figure out how to bring your hot neighbor back to life.
Relationships: Sakusa Kiyoomi/Reader
Kudos: 22





	(un)ending

Out of all the days to die, Halloween isn’t one of the dates that crossed your mind. 

Theoretically, it should be in the top ten of your dates of death but it has always struck you as such a cliche that you refuse, to this day, to consider that you’d be around any death involving Halloween. Typically, you stay home, give out some candy and refuse to answer any doorbell rings past nine. Your friends and family aren’t the wild kind either so it never crossed your mind to have any expectations for Halloween except for a few scary movies and popcorn. 

Halloween is an uneventful day in your life. 

And so, you think Sakusa’s pulling your leg but he’s not the joking type. You don’t think you have even heard him laugh in the eight months that you have known him.

You’re ninety percent sure he kicks puppies in his free time. That’s the kind of vibe he gives you which makes his claim quite serious. 

He’s hot enough that you do give him a pass for being a potential puppy kicker which must say a lot about you and nothing you want to be known for.

Unfortunately for Sakusa, you’re high so a lot of what Sakusa has just told you has already left your mind and all you’ve managed to retain is  _ dead _ ,  _ my body _ ,  _ motherfucker _ and a couple other words that are now leaving your memory bank. 

“What’s the code again?” you ask, blinking heavily. Smoking while you’re tired isn’t the best move you’ve made in recent times but twenty minutes ago, you were under the assumption that you’d be going straight to bed after work seeing as there were no children on your floor for you to give candy out to. 

Sakusa methodically knocking at your door is an unwelcome surprise but you’re high enough that you don’t try to act like you’re not home and thus, leading to your current predicament. 

“1026,” he says curtly. He’s as succinct as ever.

You squint behind you at him as you punch in the code. He doesn’t look like he’s dead. 

“Wait until you see my body,” he snaps in response. He has one of his hands clutching as his shoulder and you can see the indents his fingers are making on said shoulder. 

Excuse you for not being able to take him seriously. 

A thought crosses your mind. Maybe he’s a mind reader too. You don’t think you’ve voiced any of your thoughts so far. 

“So grumpy,” you huff, pushing the door open. 

He phases through you like some sort of ghost. Or you assume he phases through you because suddenly he’s in front of you. 

He’s looking pointedly at something, jerking his head from you to the floor. 

It’s too bad you’re focused on the moles on his forehead. 

You don’t know what genetic lottery Sakusa won to have those but goddamn, aren’t you lucky to witness them this close up. 

He snaps his fingers in your face. It doesn’t surprise you that he’s that type of person but you’re annoyed all the same. 

“Can you focus?” he seethes. He tries to look serious but it’s less severe without his mask on. 

You’re pretty sure he’s wearing the same expression as that time you caught him tripping up the stairs, except there’s no red cheeks accompanying it. Shame. 

Is he that embarrassed to be showing you his supposed dead body?

You hum thoughtfully. You guess you wouldn’t want to be caught literally dead either. It must be humiliating. 

You make your way to his kitchen where he’s been angling his head aggressively. 

At first, you don’t notice anything out of the ordinary. 

He has a jar of pickles opened and a face mask right next to the jar. His knives are kept in a block and there’s a whetstone tucked in the corner of the counter. And then your eyes wander to the floor. 

There’s a lot more blood than one might think. 

“What the fuck.” 

You rub your eyes and look again. 

You look back at Sakusa who’s giving you his best ‘ _ didn’t I tell you _ ’ smug face. You kick the non-bloody part of his body for that one. 

“Hey! This is a crime scene,” he says, standing protectively over his body. 

You step on his body through Sakusa to see if he offers any resistance. 

There’s not any. 

“Oh my God, you’re actually a ghost,” you say in horror. 

Your horror is muted but it’s slowly creeping up your throat, gripping you tightly. That’s a dead body. It’s a real dead body. 

“Oh my God that’s your actual dead body.” 

“Yeah,” he says.

Maybe he’s had enough time to come to terms with being dead but you still think he should be more freaked out than a simple ‘yeah’. 

“What do I do? What the fuck, you made me an  _ accomplice _ !” you accuse, pointing a finger at him. You trip as you try to back away from the body but his kitchen table prevents you from getting very far and from toppling over. 

His body’s eyes are closed which you don’t realize is something you’re grateful for until you’re looking right at his still body. There’s a pool of blood surrounding his head that seems to have stopped spreading but it’s a larger pool than you would have ever wanted to see. You’re trying not to look too hard in fear of seeing the part of his skull that had to have been bashed in for him to be a ghost. But you can’t seem to get yourself to look away. It’s like they say, you can’t look away from a car accident. 

Sakusa stood up from his protective crouch to lean against the counter. You don’t understand how he can lean against the counter yet not touch you but your mind isn’t built to observe the specifics between nonliving matter and living matter. You’re off the clock from school, you’ve stopped thinking. 

“You’re not an accomplice. I’m clearly dead from the light falling and hitting my head,” he says, a tinge of exasperation in his voice. You can tell he’s trying to be polite about your meltdown but he sucks. You can see the impatience oozing out of his ghostly body. 

“Don’t take that tone with me. The police are going to wonder why I’m here and then they’re going to pin a murder on me because you couldn’t open your pickle jar somewhere else.”

You suddenly squat, covering your face. 

“Why couldn’t you have died when I wasn’t high?” you groan. Fuck, what if the cops can tell? What if they use that against you? 

Sakusa makes a face at you. His expressions are blatant now which is funny to you in the back of your mind. He’s a lot more expressive without a mask which duh, but he’s comically more expressive. Maybe that’s why he wore one. However, you’re not able to fully appreciate the humor in that with the looming thought of prison taking over your mind. 

“Sorry, I didn’t pencil in my death today. I should have been more considerate,” he deadpans, arms crossed along with his ankles. He’s dressed the same as the body on the floor, sans the bloodstains. You want to understand the reasoning as to why he looks as he did in life but it’s not as if Sakusa is some ghost expert. He’s been dead less than a day, you can be absolutely sure of that seeing as you saw him feeding the alley cats this morning. 

(Maybe he kicks puppies but you know he’s practically adopted the calico that wanders around the street. He’s even gotten her a collar, though the address is the nearest vets office.) 

“How long have you been dead anyway?”

You’ve been home for two hours now and you hadn’t heard any telltale signs of Sakusa getting brained in his apartment. You know the walls are thin enough that you should’ve heard it. 

He looks to the clock in his living room. Now that you’re looking over there as well, you’re realizing Sakusa has a very tastefully done apartment. What a waste now. 

Maybe your landlord will let you move in and keep Sakusa’s apartment as is as a way of paying back the emotional trauma you have from seeing his dead body. 

He has a severe look on his face when he answers you, “Four hours now.” 

“Have you just been wandering the building for a while?”

Sakusa looks away. “I’ve been waiting outside my door since it happened.”

You’re trying to connect all the dots. You have to pass by Sakusa’s door to get to your apartment because you’re neighbors. You know for a fact you didn’t see him skulking outside his own apartment when you came back a couple hours ago. 

You’re hyper aware of his presence, conditioned to it if the uptick in your heart rate was anything to go by. He makes you nervous in the worst way possible. The combination of hot and intimidating works well for him but not your heart. 

“No you weren’t,” is what comes out of your mouth as you try to contain the thoughts of your sort of crush on Sakusa. Now is not the time to be dwelling on that. Actually, with how the day’s going, you’re never going to dwell on this again because you’ll have a new neighbor.

“Yeah, I was.”

“But I didn’t see you,” you argue. There aren’t a lot of ways to avoid your neighbors in this apartment complex. And he’s your  _ neighbor _ . You have to walk past his place to get to yours. 

He rubs the bridge of his nose. “I know. I tried getting your attention but you didn’t notice.”

“Can you feel anything when you do that?” you ask and then register his words, “Wait, how did you try to get my attention?”

“Yeah I can feel it. And I called your name a couple times. You didn’t have any headphones,” he says almost accusingly.

“Huh,” you sigh, moreso to the first thing he said than the accusation. 

You really hadn’t noticed Sakusa. 

At all. 

In theory this should be impossible because you didn’t even have to look at Sakusa for your heart to try and beat itself out of your chest. If he is in the general vicinity, your heart knows. 

Though, you’re starting to have an inkling as to why you hadn’t noticed him. 

It’s out there but it’s the only thing that makes sense with the information you have. 

“I think,” you begin, tapping your chin with a finger, “That I’m a ghost whisperer.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“But only when I’m high,” you finish and snap your fingers, “That’s why I can see you now!”

“No wonder you haven’t had a filter this entire time.”

“Oh, you’re not a mind reader?” you say, shell shocked. Ghosts have supernatural powers right? 

Well, he isn’t a vampire like Edward. But shouldn’t ghosts be able to read minds? They exist on another plane. They should have more powers than simply existence and writing on the fogged mirrors after a hot shower and so it makes sense to you that ghosts have access to your inner thoughts. Though, you don’t want Sakusa anywhere near your thoughts because him knowing about your debilitating crush on him is embarrassing. 

Thankfully, you’re aware enough to make sure your mouth stays shut with that thought. 

“All I can do is,” and he shrugs, waving his hands about, “Nothing really.” 

You’re both ignoring his body lying two feet away but it hangs over you. You’ve established that Sakusa is a ghost. You’ve established that he’s dead. You’ve established that you can only see him when you’re high. 

Now what?

As if an answer to your question, there’s a frantic knock on the door. 

Immediately you flinch. 

Did someone else hear Sakusa crack his skull open and call the police? Or at the very least, the maintenance man?

Sakusa holds a finger to his lips and walks through his front door. Which is a sick move in all honesty, you’re actually impressed. 

He comes back in, a disgruntled look marring his face. 

“Can you open the door?”

You stare at him. Is he setting you up? “Is it a cop?”

He gives a long suffering sigh. “No, but I’m not sure it’s much better.”

“Omi! Open the door! I know you saw me!”

There’s some shuffling and the bangs quiet down. 

“Oh I guess you can’t open the door. Since you’re a ghost and all. Hm.”

To put Sakusa out of his misery, you make your way to the front door, tracking blood. Maybe you’ve added to his misery by making his apartment dirtier. 

Oops. 

You crack open the door, peeking through the sliver as if you’re guilty of something. 

“Hi.”

You open the door wider to get a better look at the man standing in front of it. You almost can’t believe your eyes.

He has ears.

Your eyes drop to his hips. And a few tails by the look of it. 

He opens his mouth but you hold your hand up before a word can escape him. 

“Give me a moment.”

You close the door. You turn to Sakusa. 

“He looks like a fox right?” you ask even though it’s useless. What else could that man look like? 

Sakusa nods. “A kitsune I think,” he says before rolling his eyes, “I should’ve known. He’s always been such a pain in the ass. And a liar.”

“Hey!”

Ignoring the self induced rage Sakusa is putting himself into as he continues to bash the fox man outside, you open the door again. 

“Can I help you?” you say pleasantly as if he doesn’t have three tails waving hi to you. This is a normal man. He’s normal. 

You take a closer look at him. 

Oh, and he’s hot. 

“Thank you,” the man grins, shooting a shit eating look behind you. 

Sakusa takes a deep breath, letting it out noisily. 

In fear that you will have two brained bodies in your vicinity, you move to let the man in and stand close enough to him that Sakusa won’t try anything. Who knows if he’ll awaken some ghostly power through the sheer anger he’s feeling towards this man. 

“I’m Atsumu,” the fox man introduces, holding his hand out. 

He has claws. 

You nod your head, “Noted.” 

His smile doesn’t waver but he does waggle his brows a bit. “No name for you?”

At this, you wrinkle your nose. “Sakusa said you’re a kitsune. I don’t really think it’s in my best interest to tell you my name.” You’re not apologetic. 

Atsumu laughs. “Too bad because Sakusa’s talked about you,” you try to look at Sakusa but he’s suspiciously somewhere out of your sight, “Anyway, I figured you’d need some help.” 

You tilt your head. “How’d you know Sakusa died?” 

Did he have a hit on Sakusa? It’s possible that he set up another ghost or supernatural creature to make the light fixture fall on Sakusa. It doesn’t bode well for you to be in the murderer’s presence. 

You try to look past Atsumu to the closed door to determine if you can make it. It might be better to make a break for the kitchen and grab one of those knives in the block. Sakusa seems like the type to keep his knives sharpened at all times. 

Atsumu holds his phone up, conveniently blocking your sight to the door. Suspicious. 

“I got a tip,” he says, waving his phone. 

You grab it out of his hand, ignoring his yelp, and scroll through his messages. The idiot actually unlocked his phone to show you. 

You give the messages a cursory glance. 

“Do you know a Sho-kun, Sakusa?” You turn to look for Sakusa but he’s nowhere to be seen. 

You turn back to Atsumu to ask if he knows where Sakusa disappeared to but now he looks different.

He looks  _ human _ . He also looks vaguely familiar but you can’t put your finger on it. 

Weirdly enough, you think he’s hotter as a kitsune but that thought sends genuine chills down your spine so you force yourself to stop that train of thought. 

You frown at Atsumu instead. “How did you get rid of the tails? And the ears?”

He looks surprised. He looks behind you, mouthing something. 

“I still have them.” Atsumu turns his attention back towards you. Something shifts in his expression. “You can’t see them anymore?”

You shake your head. Your mind is feeling a lot less fuzzy and you’re starting to grasp the situation at hand better. 

“Oh.”

Atsumu raises an eyebrow at you. 

“I’ll be back,” you head to the door. You’re pretty sure you have a couple of those edibles Akaashi left behind. Hopefully they’re still in the cute baggie he brought them in so you can take them with you. 

“Fix him,” you shoot over your shoulder before closing the door. 

You make your way to your place, more aware of the blood you're tracking than you were before. Luckily, the blood on your shoes has dried for the most part so there are flakes that are being spread from Sakusa’s door to yours instead of actual bloody footprints. Hopefully no one looks too closely or has any idea what dried blood looks like. You don’t have the time to clean up before everyone comes back from work.

You pop in, scavenging through your backpack at the floor and pulling out the strawberry covered bag. You open it and eat one of the gummies. 

You’re thankful that this time Akaashi brought gummies and not the hard candies. 

You plan to wait five minutes before heading back over. You don’t think you have it in you to hold a conversation with a kitsune. However, there’s a knock on your door.

Peeping through the peephole, you see a disgruntled Atsumu with his hand raised to knock again while he says something nasty to the air beside him. Ah, so your edibles are still working through you. You wish the high would hit you quicker so you can see what Sakusa is doing to piss off Atsumu. 

You open the door and let Atsumu in wordlessly, amused as whatever Sakusa says riles him up further. 

“Can you please tell this asshole to let me call Hinata over?” Atsumu cries out, flinging his arms out. 

You point to your eyes. “I’m not high yet. Give me five minutes.”

“She can’t even see you Omi! Give it up!”

Whatever Sakusa responds with sends Atsumu into a flurry. You lead him to your couch in case he starts smacking things with his tails. 

You go to the kitchen to grab Atsumu a water bottle and one for yourself. You hand it to him and take a seat beside Atsumu. There’s a brief second of silence and then, “Fine!” Atsumu moves a couch cushion over grumpily. “Are you happy now?”

You pick up the collar of your shirt and sniff. You showered this morning so you shouldn’t smell that bad. But the combination of the stress sweats of seeing a dead body and regular sweat might not be doing you a favor right now. 

Atsumu pulls the water bottle from his mouth noisily. He waves his hand once in a dismissive manner. 

“You smell fine. Omi’s mad that I was sitting so close to you.” He sticks his tongue out at the space between you two. “So jealous and for what!”

“Um,” you say. You’re missing half the conversation so you cut your losses. You don’t think Atsumu would tell you the truth anyway. “Anyway, who’s Hinata?”

Atsumu leans forward. His eyes are brighter. “He can bring Omi back to life!”

“How?”

“I’m not really sure because that’s not my specialty but Hinata said he can. He’s the one that knew that Omi died,” Atsumu shrugs. He looks relaxed on your couch which sort of irks you because Sakusa’s dead. Why does this fox bastard get to lean back and look so self-satisfied? He even said he can’t do anything about Sakusa’s current state personally. 

You uncap your water bottle, nodding a bit. “So I’m just supposed to believe you?”

“Yeah?”   
“Call Hinata over then,” you say. 

Atsumu gets shifty. He glances at you and then at his phone. “Um, well...I don’t know if it’s safe for you to be around him. He’s not exactly...human.”

“You just asked me to invite Hinata over. Also, Sakusa’s a ghost and you’re a kitsune. I don’t think him not being human is priority.”

Atsumu scratches the back of his neck. “I meant that more as inviting Hinata to Omi’s place. It could be dangerous for you to be around.”

“Tell Hinata to come to my place or I’m going to find out who Hinata is and bash his skull in with the same light that killed Sakusa,” you lean forward, forcing Atsumu to look you in the eye, “And then I’m going to pin the murder on you. Get to it.”

Your threats are idle but now that your mind has had time to process what’s going on, you want Sakusa to be alive in the next hour. You don’t want to have to explain his dead body. You don’t want to have to fully process that you’ve been around his dead body. You sure as hell don’t want Sakusa haunting your apartment. You’re the only one that can see him, granted while you’re high, but he’d much rather hang around you than roam the hallways. It’s what you would do if you were in his position and you cannot have that. You’d rather die than have Sakusa see the porn you watch. 

Atsumu swallows. “Got it.”

He makes the call in front of you and by the end of it, you’re beginning to see his tails again. Sakusa’s sat right next to you when his apparition appears once more. He’s surprisingly close for how much he seems to hate being in the same area as other people. 

_ Well, as a ghost he doesn’t have to worry about germs, _ you reason. 

There’s an interlude of silence between the three of you. 

“So,” you start off because apparently you can’t keep your mouth shut in silent situations, “How do you guys know each other?”

Sakusa looks to Atsumu. 

“Can you see him again?” Atsumu asks, pointing to Sakusa. 

You take a moment before you nod. Now is not the time to be messing with Sakusa. 

“We’re teammates,” Sakusa interjects when Atsumu opens his mouth. 

He’s crossed his ankles and leaned back on your couch. It’s unfair that Sakusa looks as good dead as he does alive. If you didn’t know better, you’d think he was sitting on your couch for a night in. There are no signs of trauma on his body. 

Of course Sakusa would look pretty as a ghost. 

You shake your head as if it’ll be able to physically throw the thoughts of your mind. Focus.

“Volleyball right?” you ask, feigning a questioning look to the left. 

You know it’s volleyball. The image of Sakusa in volleyball gear is one that has haunted you ever since you found out you were neighbors with a professional athlete. Once or twice you have had one of his games on with the sound low. Maybe more than two times. 

Atsumu nods, draining the water bottle in one go. “Hinata’s a part of the team too so he’ll figure out some loophole to bring Omi back. He’s nice like that.” 

You mentally count off the starting lineup. Not including Sakusa’s current form, that would make one third of the starters supernatural beings. 

“Isn’t that unfair?”

Atsumu crushes up the bottle before shooting it off to the trashcan in your kitchen. 

He misses. 

“Never mind,” you sigh before he manages an answer. 

“That was just unlucky!”

“Is it because of the claws?” Part of you is genuinely curious but most of you is fucking with him. You’re sure there’s some explanation for his claws and volleyball or else he would have chosen another job that didn’t involve an inflated ball. 

He hides them away. “No,” he purses his lips, sneaking a look at Sakusa who has his face tilted upwards, “Okay, maybe.” 

You tilt your head at Sakusa. “Did you know about it?”

He straightens up, rubbing the bridge of his nose again. He’s moved closer to you as well once he uncrosses his legs. His thigh could be considered flush against yours. 

You have to force your eyes away from your legs to look him in the face. 

“Yeah,” he says finally. At your stare, he continues, “They told us a couple weeks after Hinata joined because Bokuto can see their,” he motions towards the top of his head and hands, “Add ons.”

“Bokuto has the vision,” Atsumu says sagely. 

“All the time?”

They both nod. 

“Huh.” 

How has Bokuto not accidentally told anyone yet?

“Akaashi knows,” Sakusa responds to your apparently spoken question. 

You stare at him wide eyed. “Keiji? That Akaashi?”

At his slow nod, your eyes bug out. 

Atsumu looks between you and Sakusa though Sakusa looks just as confused. “You know him?”

You cover your mouth with your hand. The world is truly so small. 

“I’m one of his interns,” you say slowly. Technically, you work under Tenma, his boss, but Akaashi is around enough that he assigns you and the other interns your tasks for the day. He has become one of your closest friends since you’ve moved to this part of the city. Yet, you had no idea that he’s friends with  _ the _ Bokuto of the MSBY Jackals. 

Perhaps there is some truth to the idea of there being six degrees of separation between you and everyone else in the world. 

Before you can ask for some clarification, there’s a brief second of pure darkness before the world lights up again. You blink and suddenly there’s an orange haired man sitting on top of your coffee table. 

“Omi-san! Are you okay?” 

The man looks at Sakusa worriedly. He puts his hand out to touch Sakusa but thinks better of it. 

You stare at this stranger in your apartment. He’s buff for one and he’s got a black staff clutched in one of his hands. His hair barely covers the beige horns peeking through the curls. For the most part, he looks normal. You think his eyes are red but the lighting in your apartment has never been considered good. 

Atsumu’s watching your face. “What does he look like to you?” He’s looking between the two of you as Hinata fusses over Sakusa who looks as if he tolerates this man’s presence. He moves closer to you once again though. 

“Normal I guess? I mean he has horns?” 

“Really?” Hinata gasps turning to you. His eyes are definitely red but subdued. 

You nod. 

“Huh,” Atsumu says and leaves it at that. He turns his attention to Hinata. “So you think you can bring him back?”

Hinata’s now staring at you in wonder. “Yeah I can, I just have to call my boss,” he answers, scooting closer to you. 

You see rather than feel Sakusa put his hand on your knee. You have to be imagining the warmth on your knee. 

“Boss?” you and Sakusa both repeat. 

Hinata nods vigorously. “He’ll give you a hard time though,” he warns as if that means anything to you or Sakusa. 

Is Sakusa going to have to fight for his life? Accomplish some life quests to gain the chance at getting his soul again? 

“You’ve been watching too many movies,” Sakusa says disapprovingly from your side. 

Hinata almost bashes his knees against yours when he fully turns to you. “Do I really look normal?” 

Huh? 

“Uh, yeah. Other than the horns. And red eyes,” you point to your eyes, “But they’re not that red so they’re not really noticeable?” 

Hinata oohs. “I think you’re the first person who’s said that. Most times, I look like a skeletal version of myself.”

“Why?”   
He shrugs. “Perceptions are almost like a placebo. They expect reapers to look a certain way and it warps their reality when I come.” 

You mouth ‘reaper’ at Sakusa. What the fuck. 

“Oh,” is all you can say. Hinata’s gone off on some tangent that you don’t care to listen to. What the fuck is a reaper?

“Shouldn’t you get your boss?” Sakusa motions to Hinata’s phone, a sharp edge to his voice.

Hinata nods sheepishly and grabs Atsumu to head to the kitchen. 

Hinata calls his boss while Atsumu looks through your fridge. You’re a little too frazzled to get properly annoyed at Atsumu looking through your kitchen like he has any right to but Sakusa looks like he’ll beat him up in your honor.

“You think they’ll make me fight for my life when I’m already dead?” he asks. The amusement is unfamiliar to you as is the smile twitching at the corner of his mouth. 

God, you want to kiss him so bad. 

You shove those feelings down and shoot Sakusa an annoyed look. “Listen, movies are all I have to base this off of. I didn’t expect you to be a ghost on Halloween okay? I’m trying to make this make sense when none of this does.” 

Sakusa’s looking at you. He dips his head to look you in your eye. He’s a giraffe, you’re convinced. 

“Are you doing okay?” he asks carefully. His hand is still on your knee and you swear you can feel his fingers clench a bit.

You give him a tight smile. You’re not feeling very high even though you know you have to be in order to witness this. “I should be asking you that. Are you okay? Are you in shock?”

He frowns as you avoid answering his question. “I’m fine. It hasn’t hit me that I’m dead,” he says thoughtfully. “It feels like a dream.” 

You laugh and it’s a bit warbled. “Tell me about it,” you say, falling back into your couch. A familiar pit of anxiety is beginning to brew. 

What a day. 

“Thank you,” he says suddenly. His hand is still gripping your knee. 

You perk up. “What for?”

“For believing me,” he admits after a few moments of you two staring at one another. He’s not looking you in your eyes anymore. Instead his eyes focus on your mouth. “It was scary. No one seeing me, I mean. I was starting to feel…panicked by the time you realized I was there.”

You wish he had a physical form so you could squeeze his hand though you don’t know how receptive he’d be to that. “I’m surprised you haven’t freaked out more honestly. I’d be in tears if I were you,” you admit, running a hand through your hair. “I really was not expecting to see my favorite neighbor dead today.” 

He raises a brow. “Favorite neighbor?”

You wave your hands. “For superficial reasons. Everyone else on this floor is at least ten years older than me yet they all look twenty years older than me. Plus, you bring me dinner sometimes and then I think about you for weeks on end because of that.” 

You freeze. Whoops. 

You can tell Sakusa doesn’t know what facial expression to sport since he’s switching from smug to mildly horrified every few seconds. 

“I think I’m high,” you say lamely when enough time has passed that the anxiety in your stomach blooms into embarrassment. It’s not quite heading into shame territory but man, is it getting close. 

When he doesn’t say anything, you cover your eyes with your arm. “Please forget about this when Hinata brings you back to life or I will kill myself.” 

It doesn’t help that you can hear Atsumu cackling in your kitchen. 

“Uh-”

Whatever fuckery that is to come out of Sakusa’s mouth is interrupted by another brief second of pure darkness. When the world comes to again, there’s now a new stranger in your apartment. 

He’s decently tall, his bedhead adding a few inches. He has a matching cloak to Hinata’s except his is lined with red thread whereas Hinata’s is a pure black. The thing that shocks you most is not that he has black horns poking through his bedhead but that he has tennis shoes on. Volleyball shoes if you’re remembering Sakusa’s uniform correctly. His outfit consists of slacks and a button up so the sight of his ankles and tennis shoes throws you for a loop. 

“Hi?” you say, exchanging looks with the rest of the guys in the room because uh, what?

This is now starting to feel like some boy band meeting. 

The odds of every single man in this room being model gorgeous is so low you don’t know whether you should feel blessed or wary. 

The man eyes the hand that has now moved to your thigh and grins widely, a bit shittily if you’re not being picky.

“Hello,” he says, taking the seat that was previously Hinata’s. He’s bigger than Hinata so his knees are almost touching yours. “Are you the one whose dead body is in the room next door?”

His eyes are on you but his words are directed to Sakusa. 

“Obviously.” There’s an unfriendly edge to his voice and you shoot him a slight warning look. This is the man that’s supposed to be bringing Sakusa back to life. This is the time to kiss up. 

The man stretches out. His knee knocks against yours and he looks almost gleeful when Sakusa shoves his outstretched legs with his own 

“I’m Kuroo.”

You look to Sakusa to introduce himself first but his eyes are narrowed and his fists are clenched. He’s moved his hand off your thigh and instead pressed himself up against your thigh with his own again. 

You look away before your face flushes. You’re suddenly glad that you can’t feel Sakusa or else you’d have to take a few laps around your apartment to cool down. 

When it’s clear Sakusa won’t say anything else, you introduce yourself as the silence stretches on for far too long. 

Kuroo taps on your coffee table. His nails are painted black and you can tell it’s real nail polish opposed to it being his actual nail colors. Interesting that whatever this man is, he is so committed to his aesthetic that he buys nail polish for it. You hope this seeing-the-supernatural-when-you’re-high thing is consistent. 

“You know, seeing as Hinata and I are grim reapers we can bring you back,” he starts off, crossing his leg over his knee. Lots of leg movement with this guy. Maybe it’s because there's little to no space between your coffee table and the couch but it’s a bit concerning how much he’s shifting. 

A thought begins to form in your mind but you quickly shut it down in fear that if you say it out loud, Sakusa will kill you for thinking horny thoughts about this grim reaper. 

“So do it.”

You look to the side where Atsumu and Hinata are and gesture with your head for them to shut him up. Atsumu looks too happy to see Sakusa fuck this up for himself and Hinata seems spellbound by this interaction. 

Men are useless sometimes. 

“Sakusa,” you whisper, giving Kuroo a small smile as if he can’t see you gritting your teeth, “Stop making a fuck out of yourself.”

“ _ He’s _ making a fuck out of himself,” he whispers back just as harshly. 

You start to whisper argue with him because  _ hello _ ? Does he not want to live again? You have no idea why he’s deciding now to be an asshole but you shouldn’t be surprised because it seems that his usual disposition is to be an asshole. 

“Well this fuck can’t bring you back until you complete the trials,” Kuroo interrupts once more when you and Sakusa get a bit too heated and actually start raising your voices. He admires his nails. “And it needs to be tonight or else your body will start to decay too much for us to do much about it.”

Oh gross. You haven’t even thought about the fact that Sakusa’s body is lying in his kitchen with his pickles stinking up the place in some stage of rigor mortis. 

Such a shit day.

“Ooh, the trials,” Atsumu calls from the kitchen. He has a bitten apple in his hand. 

You take a deep breath. You will not lob your water bottle at Atsumu. You will not be cursed tonight. Or whatever it is that kitsune’s did. 

Maybe tomorrow. 

“You think you can handle it?” Kuroo jeers. 

Sakusa doesn’t hesitate, “Of course.”

Kuroo doesn’t look like he expected any other answer and crooks his finger. “Then Hinata will lead you to your first trial.” He points to the wall length mirror you have outside your bedroom. “Pass through if you dare.”

You look at your mirror. There are smoke tendrils surrounding it and lightning flashing in the mirror itself. Without listening to Kuroo’s haunted house speech, it’s actually a little terrifying. 

Sakusa gets up, wiping his hands on his pants. “Okay.”

You go to grab his hand but slide through the expanse of his thighs which whew, okay, that is not sending good thoughts to your mind. “Okay? Don’t you want to ask any questions?” you cry out. Does this man  _ think _ ? 

Actually, you don’t think a man has ever had a thought so the most likely answer is no. 

Sakusa looks down at you. He looks genuinely confused. “What does it matter? I want my body back.”

“Yeah but what if he makes you kill someone for it?” you shoot back. A life for a life is what they say.

“Hey, hey, we don’t do that here,” Kuroo interjects. He looks a bit panicked at your suggestion which eases your heart a fraction. 

“Let’s go.” 

Sakusa motions towards Hinata to lead him who happily does. He makes a show of it, oohing and aahing at the different lightning bursts. He uses his staff to point out the different lightning strikes, naming each one that occurs.

Sakusa looks back at you and takes a deep breath. He repeats this motion a few more times. You can’t tell if he’s trying to psych himself up or if he’s trying to telepathically tell you something. 

He does it one more time before you mentally think  _ fuck it _ and go to him. 

It seems to be the right move because Sakusa turns to you. He takes another deep breath, which is weird because you’re pretty sure it does nothing for him but whatever, and looks you dead in the eye. 

“Thank you for your help.”

You roll your eyes. If those were going to be his last words, then you might as well get something out of this entire ordeal. 

You motion for him to lean down and he does so without question. You lean up so as not to strain his back and press your lips to his. You try your best not to lean too far forward so that it at least looks like your lips are pressed up against his. 

“Take me out to dinner when you get back, yeah?” you say against his lips. You barely feel anything but it might be your imagination filling in the gaps because you swear you can feel him smile against your lips. 

“I’ll try.” And then he disappears. 

Atsumu and Hinata follow after, Atsumu ribbing on Sakusa while Hinata whines about how true love’s kiss is fake if that didn’t bring Sakusa back to life. Their voices soon fade. 

You forget about Kuroo and cover your face like you’re in elementary school. You kissed Sakusa. You still have his blood all over your shoes and his dead body in your mind and you kissed Sakusa. 

What is this life? 

You’re reminded of Kuroo again when he leans down to brush his lips against your ears. You flinch back at the touch and he looks scandalized at himself that he did that. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to get so close,” he says hastily and puts a bit of space between your ear and his mouth. “But I wanted to let you know we meant to kill someone else so he’ll come back, no worries.”

“Huh?”

Kuroo rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. “Lev’s our newbie and he was supposed to have a light fixture fall on your other neighbor’s head. He got the apartment numbers mixed up. I knew I should’ve let Hinata take his shift.” He mutters the last part to himself and you can see sparks going off on his fingertips. 

You understand the language he’s speaking to you in but you’re not comprehending his words. 

“I’m sorry, run that by me again?”   
He blows air out of his mouth. He looks pained. “Omi wasn’t meant to die today,” his voice lowers to a whisper, “I’ll let you in on a secret, Omi’s not going to die for a very long time. This was just a mix up.” 

You’re unable to fully absorb what he’s saying but you nod anyway. “I didn’t think you could have mix ups with death.”

Kuroo sniffs. He pushes his hair back. “It happens more than you think. Not with me usually, but Lev...he’s a special case,” he sighs, looking off to the side dramatically.

You furrow your brow when another flash of lightning from your mirror brightens the room once more. “Then why is he going through some trials? Shouldn’t you just give him back his body?” 

Kuroo shrugs. He flicks some dirt off his cloak and readjusts a watch on his wrist. “I don’t know, I just thought it’d be fun. It’s not like these trials are dangerous or anything. Atsumu said he hates being dirty so I figured we could make him try to navigate a maze full of roaches, maybe try and escape some quicksand.” 

He’s no longer looking like the devilish grim reaper portrayal he gave Sakusa. His expression is more boyish and mischievous than deceitful. He looks excited at the prospect of giving Sakusa the Halloween of his nightmares. 

You stare at Kuroo, weighing your options. You’re sure you could stop Kuroo from making Sakusa go through this by targeting the guilt he should be feeling for accidentally killing Sakusa. Or, you could not do that and reap the benefits. 

“Can I watch?” you ask. You put your hand to the mirror and to your delight, your hand goes through. 

Kuroo laughs, deep bellied. “Baby, you have front row seats, are you kidding me? Let’s go.” He offers his hand to you and you gladly let him lead you to hell. 

Or at least, that’s what you’re assuming that’s where you’re heading if Sakusa’s yelling is anything to go by.

You eat another gummy worm to be safe. 

You don’t want to miss this for the world. 

(You’re almost positive the day before is a fever dream except you’re in Sakusa’s kitchen with his MSBY sweatshirt on and the warmth of his lips lingering on your cheek. Sakusa threatens to beat Hinata and Atsumu with his spatula while they run around the kitchen, giggles spilling from their mouths. Kuroo had left after some morning coffee, citing that his real world job would start in an hour. He had leaned down and kissed your cheek before running away when the pan Sakusa had been frying eggs on came suspiciously close to Kuroo’s face as he dropped the eggs onto your plate. Sakusa had wiped off your cheek harshly with a napkin and leaned down to replace Kuroo’s kiss with his own. 

Perhaps you made him blush by moving your face at the last second. 

Perhaps Sakusa had been willing to ignore breakfast in favor of you if Hinata and Atsumu hadn’t barged in.

All you know is that you wouldn’t trade the past twenty four hours for anything. Except, you know, the trauma of seeing your now boyfriend’s dead body. 

You win some, you lose some.) 

**Author's Note:**

> if u saw this on tumblr...no u didn't   
> anyway, i love kiyoomi and that's all that needs to be said


End file.
